This invention relates generally to ice piece makers for refrigerators and the like and more particularly to ice piece makers that make half crescent shaped ice pieces, and the method for making such half crescent shaped pieces.
Perhaps the most prevalent form of ice piece makers currently employed in home refrigerators and freezers make full crescent shaped ice pieces with crescent shaped parallel sides and a rectangularly shaped cross sectional profile viewed in a plane normal to the parallel sides, and further having a flat top surface.
The full crescent shaped ice pieces are easily formed and removed from ice piece makers and required simpler and less expensive ice piece making mechanisms than do makers of ice pieces of different configuration--i.e. cubes, cylinders, etc. Because of this feature, the full crescent shape is preferred by most manufactures of domestic ice piece makers. It remains, however, that, although adequate for many applications for ice pieces, the full crescent shaped presents difficulties in use in the home particularly when used for cooling beverages in beverage glasses but also in storage, removal and handling of the ice pieces in preparation of beverages and other uses for ice pieces.
Full crescent shaped ice pieces are somewhat difficult to insert in glasses used in the home for holding most beverages. More specifically, the length of the top surface of the crescent shaped ice piece coupled with the fact that the ice pieces are usually found in the collection bin joined together in groups of three or four or more up to the length of the forming tray, make it difficult or impossible to fit such large groups of ice pieces into a glass. It is often not possible to fit more than a group of two joined ice pieces into a glass at a time if the glass opening is small. Even if the glass opening is large, the shape of a group of several connected full crescent shaped ice pieces will lie at an angle in the glass and seriously hinder adding more crescent shaped ice pieces into the glass.
These situations usually require breaking up the groups of ice pieces in the collection bin before removing them for use and many times require further manual breaking of the individual full crescent shaped ice pieces into smaller pieces using an ice cracker or similar device. This procedure is time consuming, frustrating, and usually results in ice chips being scattered around the work area, necessitating cleanup after preparation of a drink.
Furthermore, it is difficult to remove the crescent shaped ice pieces from the collection bin with a cup or a scoop, for example, because of the size and awkward shape of the ice pieces. Even when the crescent shaped ice pieces are successfully scooped out of the collection bin with a cup or scoop, some of them frequently slip off the scoop and drop on the floor where they slide in all directions. Free ice pieces on the vinyl floor of a kitchen present a dangerous condition since stepping on an ice piece is probably about as risky as stepping on a wet bar of soap on a tiled bathroom floor.
Other problems presented by prior art half crescent ice piece makers are as follows:
1. All of the leading and lagging half crescent shaped ice pieces of full crescent shaped ice pieces do not break apart as they are being ejected from the tray due to various reasons such as the temperature of the leading and lagging half crescent shaped ice pieces forming the full crescent shaped ice pieces.
2. Moving half or full crescent shaped ice pieces out of the freezing tray enhances the risk, with most prior art devices, of an ice piece accidentally falling back into the tray before it is ejected from the tray, thereby increasing the risk of faulty operation of the ice maker even to the point of stalling the rotation of the shaft.
Clearly, the formation of smaller, lighter, and less awkwardly shaped ice pieces, such as half crescent shaped ice pieces, would mark a definite improvement in the art of forming ice pieces for use in home refrigerators and also in commercial applications such as the manufacturing of ice pieces to be sold in bulk by stores, service stations, etc.
Prior art half crescent shaped ice piece maker are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,153 issued 1/30/90 to Trocinski and entitled "Making Ice In A Refrigerator" and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,494 issued 5/8/90 to Karlovits and entitled "Making Ice A Refrigerator".
In both Trocinski and Karlovits there is shown an elongated freezing tray with an arcuately shaped inner surface divided into crescent shaped cavities by equal spaced partitions to form a plurality of crescent shaped cavities. A rotatable shaft is secured at both ends in bearings with its axis coincident with the axis of the arcuately shaped inner surface of said tray and further having three rows of ejector elements secured to and extending radially outward from said rotatable shaft. Each of these three rows of ejector elements lies along a separate common plane parallel to the axis of said rotatable shaft and spaced 120.degree. from the adjacent rows of ejector elements.
Further in both Trocinski and Karlovits the ejector elements of one row of ejector elements, identified herein as the primary ejector elements, each extends perpendicularly down into the center of a water filled crescent shaped cavity 14 to divide the crescent shaped volume of water therein into two half crescent shaped ice pieces.
One of the problems presented by prior art ice piece makers, and particular half crescent ice piece makers, is due to the ice half crescent ice pieces becoming solidly frozen to the ejector element (the primary ejector element) which lies between the leading and lagging half crescent ice pieces. This ice bond between the leading and lagging half crescent ice pieces is sometimes sufficiently strong to resist being broken loose from the primary ejector elements when the leading half crescent ice piece impacts the ice piece stripper elements with the result that the rotating shaft will stall and must be freed by human help.
In half crescent shaped ice pieces there is another ice bond, identified herein as an ice bridge which exists around the primary ejector elements and connects the leading half crescent ice piece to the lagging half crescent ice piece of each full crescent shaped ice piece. The above-described ice bridge must also be broken when the leading half crescent ice piece impact the ice stripper elements in order to separate the leading half crescent ice piece from the lagging half ice piece of each full crescent ice piece.
In both Trocinski and Karlovits all of the ejector elements are rigid and require a substantial force, represented by the motor rotating the shaft to which the ejector elements are rigidly attached, in order to break loose the leading half crescent shaped ice piece from the primary ejector element to which it is frozen and also to break the ice bridge connecting the leading and lagging half crescent ice pieces.
It would mark a definite improvement in the art to provide an improved half crescent ice piece maker which efficiently and with a minimum of force ejects the leading and lagging rows of half crescent shaped ice pieces from the freezing tray as quickly as possible to minimize the dripping of water into the freezing tray, to minimize the risk of a leading half crescent ice piece from accidentally dropping into the freezing tray, and most importantly to virtually ensure the breaking apart of the leading and lagging rows of half crescent shaped ice pieces before the ejection thereof from the freezing tray occurs.
It is submitted that the simultaneous breaking apart of large common areas of the leading and lagging half crescent ice pieces of prior art structures require a larger motor than is required by the structure of the present invention with attendant problems of undesirable heat generation and dissipation thereof. Furthermore, the cost of manufacturing three rows of ejector elements rather than only two rows of ejector elements is greater.